Holey Hoodie

I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for all your lovely comments here and on PR about the jacket I made my son. You have no idea what a smile they put on my face.

On Saturday I worked on another little number for my baby. I made him a "holey hoodie" last fall and he loved it, but sadly it's too small now. Since he loved that sweatshirt so much, I decided to surprise him with another one. The pattern is from Ottobre 4-2007-11. It's really generously wide, so I can see getting a few more years out of this pattern by just adding some length even tho I made it in size 110 (the biggest size) .


Up close of the pockets. I used the reverse side of my cover stitch to make to stitch the pocket down.



I think the pictures show how much he likes he new hoodie! :-) I wish I could keep him little, he's so darn much fun.

A Pilot Jacket (Img Heavy)

I finished my son's pilot jacket earlier in the week and was finally able to get outside and get some photos to share. I know I'm going overboard on pictures, but it's a mom's duty to gloat, so here I am fulfilling my *mommy duty*. :-)

From the pictures you can see all the details of the jacket. I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out. I posted a detailed review of the jacket on PR. I highly recommend the jacket and plan to enter the jacket in the sewing for children contest that is currently running.

I'd like to thank the academy...

or at least sweet Birgitte who nominated me for several blog awards. I'm flattered that anyone wants to read what I type. As I've mentioned prior, I started this blog as a way to record my sewing accomplishments as well as other little musings of my life.

The awards I received are the 1) Excellent Blog Award, 2) Brilliante Weblog Premio 2008, and 3) Premio al Esfuerzo Personal Award. Each award comes with different requirements to pass them on, but atlas I'm a party pooper because I have a hard time choosing and hate to hurt any one's feelings by them not being chosen. There are so many excellent blogs that I regularly read and enjoy. I appreciate the efforts my fellow bloggers put forth because I'm truly inspired and encouraged by what I read. Thank you for the awards Birgitte! :-)




No sewing going on here. For my youngest nephew, the term "party in my crib" is his motto at my house! Good grief that little boy was wired when it was time for bed last night. He was the last to sleep and the first one up (before 6am - hello little boy, my alarm doesn't even go off until 6am). He's napping as I type and will hopefully continue for at least another hour or better. I'm already exhausted and it's only 1pm my time.

My plan now is to relax while the littlest naps and the two older boys are outside playing. I am going to grab a stack of BWOFs, sit outside so I can supervise the mischief makers, and do a little window shopping for upcoming fall projects using stashed fabrics. As a bonus it would be great if they fit into the PR pattern stash contest too. :-)

Pilot Jacket

The first time I saw this jacket, I just knew I had to make it. It's from Ottobre 3/2003, #17. As mentioned in my last post, I was headed to Fabric Depot to get the fabric. I got the fabric, zipper, and am happy to report I only came home with one other piece of fabric. :-) Yes, I'm on a fabric diet - defininitely a diet and not a fast. By the way, I really apprecaite all the comments on my last post. It's good to know I'm in good company with my love for fabric.

Here is the coat I'm making (click the picture to enlarge).

Yesterday I traced off the embroidery motif from the pattern sheet. I traced it onto clear water soluble stabilizer with a extra fine point Sharpie.

Here is the image on the stabilizer. Ottobre instructs you to pin the stabilizer on the wrong side of the fabric, stitch the lines with a straight stitch, then flip the garment over to the right side and follow the straight stitch lines with a satin/zig zag stitch to produce the embroidery. The nature of my fabric didn't allow me to pin, so I used some temporary spray adhesive to attach my stabilizer.

Here is part of the embroidery done with the satin stitch. You can also see where the ouline is for me to follow. Please excuse the lint. My fabric is bonded faux leather with a fluffy shearling on the other side (very messy!).

The embroidery all finished. It's supposed to be a dog. I'm not 100% mine looks like a dog. I like it okay, DH wasn't too enthusiastic about it tho.

I got the two back side panels sewed and topstitched tonight. I decided to topstitch in black thread and am happy with how it looks (tho no picture of that quite yet).

I will try to work some more on the jacket tomorrow, however I'm on my Auntie "M" babysitting duty now and with 6 kids in the house, it's rather wild! So far so good ~ no replay of last time yet (and there better not be!). Only smiles, laughter, and a lot of fun!

I need a fabric diet!

Today I traced off a jacket from Ottobre for my youngest. My plan is to enter it in the Children's Clothing contest on PR. I wanted to make sure I purchased the adequate amount of fabric, because what I want to get is rather spendy and a smidge leftover always feels like such a waste. It's regularly $30/yd, but on sale today at Fabric Depot for $18/yd. Still a little spendy in my book, especially for a child, but I only need 1 yard plus a zipper. And really it's going to be a *cute* winter jacket and I can't buy one at the store for that price.

Once I got the jacket traced off I was looking through my fabric cupboard trying to find some inspiration. I was pulling things down and realized I really need to curb my appetite for fabric. It's hard. They are all so pretty. I want to bring them home to my lovely sewing studio. It's not a crime, right? Well it should be a crime so I will stop buying. Some may laugh at this statement and think there is no such thing as too much fabric. Well for me there is. It makes me get tense and nervous. I don't like clutter and to me this is clutter. Yes I like to be able to pick something I want to make and shop what I already have, however it still makes me uneasy to have as much as I do. So I'm going to give it the ol' college try and refrain from buying. Now stop taking bets, this will surely last longer than a day!

Yesterday I snapped this picture of my "baby" in his new shirt I made him. I used my trusty KS 2894 and love the way the top turned out. Inspiration began with a shirt I saw in the spring/summer Mini Boden catalog. I made the top back in July, but it was too big and too hot to wear it. I lined the hood in knit jersey and the applique is done in orange twill - tires complete with button hubcaps. He is beyond thrilled as you can see by the picture. I will cherish this. My kids loving mommy making something just for them. A one-of-a-kind creation that no one else has. That is why I sew.

Off to shop for the coat fabric. I'm bringing home coat fabric and a zipper, nothing else. You can shop laughing now....

What I've been up to (pretty much a book!)

Wow, it's already September (well almost mid September) and life is just flying by. The kids went back to school on the 2nd and I panicked on Labor Day because the two boys didn't have any new tops to wear on the first day. Yep, I'm one of those moms that want them to have new clothes for their first day back. Ottobre to the rescue and I had two top finished by bed time. The green one shown in the picture below is one and the other was for my older son, but it was a smidge too big so he opted to wear a RTW shirt I had bought him. Here are the kids right before we left for the first day back.

Then we celebrated our daughter turning eleven-teen! I can't believe she's 11 - where did the time go? She really wanted a Hannah Montana cake from the bakery, but after learning it was $25 (yikes), she said it was fine to make a homemade cake with sprinkles on top. What a gem, it looks like she might be coming around to the value of a dollar. Hey a mom can hope!

During the last week of August I worked on pants for the three boys. I got four pairs done total. All from Ottobre, but I have to go dig for the pattern numbers (I should do reviews and maybe when time allows I will). Here is a pair on my youngest. He was very pleased with them and loves the side pockets.

Side view~

Close up of pocket (there is one on each side)~

Here are one pair of my middle son's pants. I lightened the picture since they are black. This is one of the pairs I did the reinforced knee on. You can see it a little in the picture, but it looks way better than holes in the knees!

Back side~
My nice neighbor up the road asked if I wanted some apples and I jumped on the opportunity. I love home made applesauce, so last weekend the birthday girl and I made two batches. Here is a little work in progress. We ended up with 3 quart jars and 11 pints. I still have some apples leftover and plan to make some apple pie filling.

Here is she washing apples~

A box and bag of apples~

On the stove ready to cook~

Running them through the food mill~

And a bonus treat, apple crisp ready to pop in the oven. Boy was it tasty!!!

I finally have a picture of the top I made from BWOF 4-2008-116. As mentioned in my earlier post, I used the leftover fabric from the NL twist dress I made. The top was too big since the smallest size was a 38 and I usually wear a 36, but after taking a drastic 1" alteration on each side seam, it seems to fit. I have worn it a few times already and really like it. When I make it again, I will size the pattern down, that should surely work a lot better. It's a bit plunging too, so I will raise the neckline as well.

Another time consuming project I've been up to is redecorating the kids' bathroom. It is actually the main bathroom and is used by guests as well as the kids. It has always been the "ducky" bathroom because it was decorated with rubber ducks. After 7.5 years, I'm was more than sick of it. I decided I was going to find a lovely shower curtain and that would be the base for my new decor. While shopping with birthday girl and my mom last weekend at Kohls, I found *it*! The picture honestly doesn't do it justice. It's WAY more beautiful in person, I promise. So on Sunday, my daughter and I set out to find fabric to make a coordinating window valance and curtain to cover the linen area in the bathroom.

I found the absolute perfect fabric at Joann's, but they only had 1 yard and I needed 3. The guy looked on his computer and said the Vancouver store (about 30 minutes from my home) had 64 yards in stock. Great, I'll go after it once the kids go to school on Monday. Long story short, I went on Monday morning and couldn't find any - the nice cutting counter lady told me because it's remnants they get in from home decor manufacturers and they all have the same SKU number!!!!!! OMGosh, I was so annoyed that I'd drove all that way for nothing. Plus the paint I bought at Home Depot went with that and the shower curtain perfectly. All was not lost tho, I found a solid and went back to my local Joann's and got the 1 yard of stripe and will make a band at the bottom of the linen closet curtain. I am on the fence as to if the valance will be solid, stripe, or both with a band on the bottom.

I did get the painting all done over Monday evening and Tuesday. Now I'm waiting on Mr. Homemaker to help me hang the mirror back up and do some other "handy work" that I need help with. As soon as it's ready for a showing, I'll post pictures.

I guess that is all the news for now. As you can see, I've been busy, just not blogging about it. I've also been doing some fall cleaning trying to weed out clothes and such the kids have outgrown so I can eBay, Craig's List, or Goodwill stuff - ugg I hate clutter, it makes me batty!!!

P.S. I almost forgot to mention Hubby & I celebrated our 12th Anniversary since I posted last too! We actually didn't have a babysitter since it was over Labor Day weekend, so we took the kids bowling instead. It was a lot of fun and really we can go out to dinner any old time. And yes, do the math, our daughter was born three days after our first anniversary. Apparently we didn't know what caused that back then - young and dumb, you know how it goes! ;-) The great news is we will still be so young when the kids are grown and gone. :-)